Naruto: Uzumaki no Michi
by OnePlotThickens
Summary: Naruto is tricked into stealing the forbidden scroll a year earlier than in cannon. Another year at the academy, a summer to train and his mother's clan legacy, how will this change Naruto's path to becoming a powerful shinobi of Konoha? Intelligent/Strong!Naruto, Pairings undecided - rating currently T, subject to change
1. His Mother's Legacy

**Naruto: Uzumaki no Michi**

Naruto: Uzumaki's Path

Pairings: Undecided

Author: OnePlotThickens

Disclaimer: If I owned Naruto I wouldn't be writing Fan Fiction.

Beta: Looking for one!

* * *

Sarutobi Hiruzen, the Sandaime Hokage had a headache. It wasn't everyday that the village pariah is tricked into stealing the forbidden scroll of seals by a traitorous academy teacher, told of an S-class secret, and learns a B-class kinjustu all in one night. Turning gentle eyes to the orange-clad blond he waited for the boy to speak.

"Is it true Jiji? Am I really the…" Naruto hesitated, "the Kyuubi? Is that why they hate me so much?"

"Naruto, look at me," he began seriously, trying to think of a way to explain. He finally ended up pulling a storage scroll from one of the many drawers in his desk. "What is this?" He asked the boy.

"A scroll…?" the blond boy answered, confused.

"Yes. Now if I do this…" Sarutobi took a kunai from his white robes and sealed it within the scroll, "what is it now?"

"A scroll with a kunai sealed in it?" Naruto replied still not quite understanding.

"Right, because I sealed the kunai within the scroll it doesn't make the scroll a kunai, just as if I were to put sake in a bottle it doesn't make the bottle sake," the older man explained, seeing understanding bloom in Naruto's eyes.

"So… I'm not the Kyuubi, I'm the scroll and it's the kunai. I think I understand now, but Jiji…Why didn't you tell me before? And what do I do now?"

"I never told you before, because I wanted you to grow up like a normal child, and not worry over such things; I see however that has not been the case. Now, Naruto, I guess you have a decision to make, I can't pass you as a genin, seeing as you failed the written exam, you can however return to the academy and try again next year. Do you want to do that? In that case, you'd be graduating with those you age in the first place."

"Jiji, I told you I'd be a ninja, and I told you I'd be Hokage, and I never go back on my word, it's my nindou-ttebayo!" Naruto replied with his usual enthusiasm, then muttered just loud enough for the Sandaime to hear, "Plus I have to prove to the asshole villagers that I'm not the damn fox."

Sarutobi smiled, the child may look like his father, but the personality was pretty much all his mother. With that the wizened Hokage made a decision. "Naruto, I have something else for you."

The blond cocked his head to the side for all the world looking like a curious blond fox-kit. He stood and pulled out two scrolls, a picture and a long wooden box from a hidden compartment behind his shelves. "I believe it's time," he said, "to pass these on to you. They belonged to your mother." Naruto's eyes widened and he opened his mouth to speak. The Hokage just lifted a hand, and gave him a look that told him to save his questions till the end. "I know I haven't been straightforward on the issue of your parents Naruto, and I have my reasons for doing so. They were incredibly strong and had many enemies, however I believe it's time that you learn of your mother, as it's from her you get your clan name. When it is time, you will learn of your father, but you must be strong enough to protect yourself from his enemies, do you understand?" Naruto nodded his head but stayed silent.

"Your mother's name was Uzumaki Kushina. She was brought here to Konoha from a small island village called Uzushiogakure. One thing I want you to understand Naruto, is that you are not the first to hold the Kyuubi within you. You are the third in a line of Uzumaki who have held the burden of the Kyuubi no Youko to keep the village safe. The first was Uzumaki Mito, the wife of the Shodaime, and when she was getting old enough, she passed the burden to her great-niece, your mother." Naruto was at rapt attention during his tale, and the Sandaime smiled. "And when the Kyuubi was ripped from her seal, and she was on her deathbed on the night of your birth, the Kyuubi was sealed into you, the only other person in the village who would be able to withstand its malevolent chakra.

"You see Naruto, the Uzumaki, who were the ruling clan of Uzushiogakure were known for three things. Their life-force, which translated into large chakra reserves and long lives giving the village its name as the Village of Longevity, Uzumaki were known to live well into their hundred's without problem, their kenjutsu prowess, and fuuinjutsu. The Uzumaki were renowned for using a battle sealing technique that can only be used with their unique chakra. However they were also the best seal masters in the world. Kushina, having become a seal master herself, in time, brought all of this with her when she relocated here from Uzushio.

"It was during the Dainiji Ninkai Taisen, when, because of the strength of their fuuinjutsu Iwa and Kiri came to a short term alliance to wipe Uzushio from the map. Because we as an allied nation were not able to make it to Uzushio in time to prevent the attack the swirl symbol – the symbol of Uzushiogakure – on all Konoha's flack jackets, like the one on your jumpsuit for instance, as a symbol of friendship, and a reminder of our inability to save one of our greatest allies.

"What I'm giving to you now, Naruto, is a letter from your mother, a picture, a scroll with the clan justu of the Uzumaki, including taijutsu, fuuinjutsu, kenjutsu, and ninjutsu, and your mother's twin kodachi. I believe it's time that you learn from your clan, Naruto, become the greatest ninja that you can. Work hard for the next year Naruto, but remember, deception is a shinobi's greatest ally."

Naruto nodded numbly, it was quite a lot to take in. He had three months to train before the next academy year started. It would be a lot of work to get up to speed, but Naruto was never afraid of a little hard work.

The Sandaime smiled at him sagely, handing him his mother's things. Naruto was probably still in shock at the moment, but hopefully this would help him when he finally took it all in. Hiruzen sighed and looked up at the framed picture of his successor/predecessor, _Minato, I hope I did the right thing, but either way your boy will be a shinobi with the best of them._

* * *

It was dawn, and Naruto, despite being tired just could not sleep. The events of the day before were whirling about in his head, like the whirlpools for which his mother's village was named. Despite what most of the village thought, Naruto had quite the brain between his ears and he did use it. Sitting on top of the Yondaime's head on the Hokage Monument, Naruto quietly contemplated in the early morning glow. The fight with his traitorous ex-sensei had been eye opening. He realized that the only reason he had managed to win was due to surprise and his overwhelming advantage in numbers.

It wasn't like he was really that stupid, he had realized afterward that Mizuki had done all he could to sabotage his education at the academy. The kunai and shuriken he'd been given were unbalanced, his tests, he realized, were probably either switched for harder ones or had been under genjutsu. He didn't really skip that often, he was usually kicked out of class on some trumped up charge before he did anything. Naruto realized the first thing he'd have to do was get a set of balanced weapons and train in taijutsu. Mizuki had been the one to teach him the academy style, so it stood to reason that it felt so uncomfortable because he was doing it wrong.

The basics were the basics for a reason. If it was completely useless there was no point in teaching it to upcoming shinobi. He'd have to reread and study his academy texts, to make sure he was up to snuff on the academic stuff. He didn't really mind doing the bookwork, but when it was constantly lost or destroyed between the time he handed it in and the time he was supposed to get a grade for it, there was no point in doing it in the first place, he had thought.

The only reason he'd taken the graduation test again this year was because he had thought that his stealth and trap making grades could possibly make up for his abysmal written one. However the ninjutsu they had tested was the bunshin. After hearing about his clan, and reading one of his clan history scrolls, he realized that he just had too damn much chakra for the normal bunshin. Kage bunshin had originally been a jutsu from his clan, probably to make up for the inability to create a normal one. Naruto sighed and stretched. He then made one kage bunshin and had it go back to his apartment make him breakfast. He was going to have a long day.

He made his way slowly back to his apartment. Ten minutes into his walk, he was startled by a sudden memory of cooking breakfast. Realizing what had just happened a feral grin spread across his face, _ohhh this was gonna be good. _Several of the nastier villagers were woken with a sudden chill running down their spine, and the feeling they needed to be a little more paranoid than normal.

* * *

Naruto walked casually down the main road in the village. He was looking for a shinobi outfitter that wouldn't throw him out. He'd already been tossed out of three different weapon's shops. Ignoring the villagers' cold stares he noticed an out of the way store on the corner of the next street. Higurashi Weapons and Shinobi Outfitters was what the sign read. Opening the door and hearing the jingle of the bell tied to the handle, he warily stepped inside. Seeing no one at the counter he cautiously browsed the back shelves, looking for a decent set of kunai and shuriken that wouldn't clean out his savings. Hearing footsteps from the front, Naruto turned around to see if he'd be tossed out. Instead of the hostile face he expected to see, he saw one of the girls from the other graduation class. She wore her brown hair in twin buns on top of her head, and a pink Chinese style shirt with green knee length pants and shinobi sandals. She smiled at him.

"Welcome to Higurashi Weapons, I'm Tenten. Is there something I can help with?"

"Ah, hi Tenten, my name is Naruto and I certainly hope you can help me. I'm looking for a well balanced set of kunai and shuriken that won't be too hard on my wallet."

Tenten nodded and gestured for him to follow, she moved toward one of the shelves in the corner. "These are carbon steel, they don't channel chakra, but they're good as plain throwing weapons. These are usually what we sell for target practice and low level missions. The kunai are 30 ryo for a set of 20 and shuriken are 20 ryo for a set of 30."

"That's perfect, thank you! I'll take one of each. I was also wondering if you'd help me get rid of this…" Naruto said unsurely as he tugged at his jumpsuit. "It's durable and comfortable, but despite my love for the color, I do realize it's not really a good color for shinobi."

Tenten's grin widened and Naruto was wondering if he'd just stepped on something he shouldn't have. "Right this way!" she said, way too happily as she pulled him toward the clothing section. He looked around. Everything seemed to be of good quality; durable, long lasting, waterproof and the like. She dragged him around the section piling choices in his hands; he managed to snag a burnt orange chain mesh shirt along the way but got pulled away too fast to see anything else. "Alright!" she announced, pushing him into one of the changing stalls they had set up in the back. "When you find an outfit you like come out and show me!"She grinned as she sat down on a stool.

Naruto fished through her pile, ignoring the maroon skintight jumpsuit that looked more like pajamas than something he'd wear. He put on the burnt orange mesh shirt, and the sleeves came to about halfway up his forearms, over that he pulled on a tight dark blue t-shirt with the Uzumaki swirl stitched in the same orange on both shoulders and his back. The sleeves only covered his biceps, so the orange mesh could be seen underneath. Finding a pair of dark blue shinobi pants to match his shirt he wore those, and wrapped his legs from ankle to calf in black combat bandages. He reattached his shuriken holster to his right thigh, and slipped his blue shinobi sandals back on.

Hearing her customer come out of the changing room she looked up and had to fight down a blush. The blue and dark orange suited him, she thought.

"Tenten-san, I think I found what I like, can you help me get a few sets, and find a sword holster?"

Tenten was surprised, "Sure I'll help you find a couple more sets. What do you need a sword holster for?"

Naruto tilted his head down and looked up at her through his bangs as he rubbed the back of his head sheepishly as he answered, "I recently inherited twin kodachi from my mother and I'm learning to use them. I figured it would be a good idea to get one."

Nodding sagely in agreement, she replied in the affirmative, then asked if he'd like to wear his new clothing out of the store. Naruto, however, declined saying he'd like to keep it clean until he was at home. Grabbing a pair of black fingerless gloves with metal plates on the back and added them to the pile as Tenten began to ring him up. Remembering what he'd read about the Uzumaki taijutsu he scoured the shop as she worked finally finding the chakra weights he was looking for. Setting them on top, he waited for the total.

Naruto's head shot up as he heard loud footsteps coming from the back of the store. Hopefully the owner wouldn't throw him out before he could buy his stuff at a reasonable price. A large man stepped into the store from the back rooms, and spotted Tenten ringing up Naruto's purchase. Lumbering up behind the girl he peered at Naruto in a non-committal manner. Tenten ignored the presence behind her as she did her work only stopping when she was done to scold the man.

"Dad! We're doing business! It's not good to scare the customers." She pointed out seeing Naruto's uneasy expression. The older man's face hitched into a grin. He held his hand out over the counter to the whiskered blond as he introduced himself.

"I'm Higurashi Kaito! Glad to do business with you."

Hearing the friendliness in Kaito's voice Naruto relaxed and shook the man's hand before he answered in kind. "Uzumaki Naruto-ttebayo. I'm glad to do business with you too."

"The total will be 300 ryo, and I'll throw in a storage scroll for transport. If you ever want a practice partner with throwing weapons I'll be glad to help you out,"

"Thanks Tenten-san, I'll be sure to keep that in mind," with that, Naruto bowed respectfully, and left the store; vowing to buy anything he needed there.

* * *

Having reached home, Naruto unloaded his purchases and decided to begin training. He knew that he'd have to start at the beginning so, using what he'd learned about kage bunshin, he created 20, and sent them to read the academy textbooks and the scrolls on his clan taijutsu. He figured muscle memory was mental, so the clones could transfer that too.

As his clones got to work, Naruto showered, then redressed in his new clothes. Feeling it was safe he created 10 more clones to read up on fuuinjutsu. If it could be used to seal the greatest of tailed beasts in a human body, what else could it be capable of?

Putting on his weights and channeling enough chakra to add ten pounds to each leg, and five to each arm, he left his apartment to find a training ground where he could begin with physical conditioning. The Uzumaki taijutsu style was about speed, flexibility, and unpredictablility with hits targeting joints, nerve clusters and vital areas to take the opponent out quickly and smoothly. Knowing he'd need lean muscle for speed and agility, instead of bulk for dealing damage, he made sure to use just a little weight at a time for longer periods of time. Doing so would build the lean runner's body he needed.

Naruto ended up at Training ground 43, it had a variety of terrain to train with including a river, some forest and open areas for running and ninjutsu practice. There were three training logs on the side closer to the forest. Knowing he'd need them for practice with taijutsu later, he was glad they were there. With that Naruto began his summer training.

* * *

The first time Naruto had dispelled his clones all at once he ended up with a huge headache. Noticing that until he sorted through the mental feedback the pain would persist, he took to meditation, and dispelling his clones in groups.

Within the first week Naruto found from rereading the Academy textbooks there was a lot he had missed in class. Finding the chakra control exercise he realized that with his huge reserves he needed to refine his control otherwise he'd waste huge amounts of chakra. He ended up having to sneak into the library in henge, to look up the exercises seeing as the librarians wouldn't let him in. From then on he sent ten shadow clones to do chakra control exercises daily until they ran out of chakra. This caused Naruto's control to skyrocket, as he ended up learning both the tree walking and water walking exercises.

It wasn't until the third week of the first month that Naruto learned he had gained an observer. The unusual activity so close to training ground 44 had perked the interest of Mitarashi Anko. Naruto had been running laps around the training ground, crossing the river and leaping through trees in those respective areas. Hearing the whistle of something hurtling through the air in his direction he ducked – barely avoiding a half a dozen kunai – rolling into a crouched defensive position and pulling out a kunai as he faced the direction of his attacker.

"Not bad, gaki, not bad," came a female voice from the direction the kunai had entered. Naruto remained in his position not trusting whoever had interrupted his training. A lean figure obscured by a tan trench coat entered the training ground. The woman had purple hair pulled up so it spiked upward like a palm frond in the back, her brown eyes watched Naruto carefully while a predatory smile spread across her face.

"You certainly have good instincts, if you hadn't rolled when you did, you'd have been skewered. I was coming to check out who was making a ruckus so close to my turf, that's some training, gaki,"

"It's not polite to expect and introduction from someone else before introducing yourself, Nee-san,"

"Mitarashi Anko! Sexy and single Snake Mistress of the Leaf," She introduced with a theatrical bow.

"Uzumaki Naruto, Future Hokage-dattebayo." Naruto said, straitening from his crouch seeing no threatening posture from the woman. He did however palm the kunai in his hand, not letting his guard down completely.

"Well, gaki, now that we know each other, how about a spar? I need some entertainment from time to time."

"Okay, Mitarashi-san, that's fine, I'll play with you, and you help me train, deal?"

Anko considered for a moment, then shrugged, "Deal." She announced, her predatory grin getting even wider.

What had started as a spar turned into a kind of give and take partnership. Anko got a new plaything, and Naruto got to train in stealth, trapping, tracking and chakra sensing.

* * *

Over the three months of break Naruto managed to make it to the intermediate level katas in both kenjutsu and taijutsu. He also found he had an innate talent for fuuinjutsu, working his way up from storage scrolls to exploding tags, to trap seals and finally in the last week of break, resistance seals.

Knowing the resistance seals would be better training and more efficient for the type of movement he needed for his taijutsu, he swapped his chakra weights for a resistance seal on his left shoulder blade. He had practiced for hours with kage bunshin and by himself, until he had it perfect. He decided just to be safe to test it on a kage bunshin to make sure it wouldn't do any harm; finally having a kage bunshin apply the seal using chakra sensitive ink. The specific ink he had managed to buy turned invisible with a specific activation of his chakra, so there would be no one asking strange questions.

Finally it was time to enter the academy again; he'd be joining the class with his age group this year, so hopefully he'd be able to make some friends. Having decided to leave his kodachi at home, not wanting to stand out, Naruto made his way to his classroom. He had come to the academy 45 minutes early on purpose, so he could watch the others arrive and learn a little about his classmates. Sitting in the back row, Naruto waited for his classmates to show up. The first to walk in was a boy with black hair and eyes, with pale skin. His hair flipped up in the back in the distinct shape of a duck's ass, immediately labeling the boy as Uchiha Sasuke, the only survivor of the massacre of his clan by his own older brother. The next to come was a scruffy brunet with red triangle tattoos on his cheeks, the white ninken puppy on his head labeling him an Inuzuka. Following him, were an Aburame, made clear by both his outfit and the inhuman hum that surrounded him, a Hyuuga, who seemed way to shy for her own good, a Nara whose lazy slouch and pineapple shaped ponytail gave him away, and an Akimichi who munched happily on a bag of potato chips while conversing quietly with the Nara. Several nondescript students from civilian families followed. Just then two sets of loud footsteps could be heard in the hall followed by shrieking of earsplitting decibels. Two girls were lodged in the doorway fighting about who had entered first.

"I was first billboard brow! My big toe made it three seconds before yours!"

"NO Way! Ino-pig! I was definitely first! And I'll be the one to take the seat next to Sasuke-kun!"

"I don't think so! True love with prevail and the seat by Sasuke-kun will be mine!" The blonde, summarily called Ino, seemed to be a Yamanaka, and her frenemy, left unnamed was definitely a civilian, however she was distinguished by her bubblegum pink hair.

When they finally made it through the door the continued arguing over the seat near the Uchiha heir, not realizing there was one on each side. Finally a man who appeared to be the chuunin-sensei for this class walked in the door. He was of average height with a tanned complexion, and a large horizontal scar across his nose. Naruto hoped he wasn't like his last teachers, and was at least neutral to him, rather than hostile.

Becoming irritated by the shrieking, the chuunin-sensei used a jutsu to enlarge his head to comical proportions and shout at them to shut up and sit down. Neither of them had managed to take the seats on either side of the Uchiha. The chuunin stood in front of the class and began.

"My name is Umino Iruka, and I will be your sensei for this year. This is the last year of the Academy curriculum, so there will be a graduation test at the end of the term. Now, I'm going to call role."

* * *

**And Cut!**

**Thank you for reading and please review. I really want to know what you think. **


	2. The Academy, Training and Friends

**Naruto: Uzumaki no Michi**

Pairings: Undecided. There is now a poll on my profile, vote for who Naruto should be paired with!

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto. If I did I wouldn't be writing _Fan_ Fiction.

* * *

To say Umino Iruka was surprised was like saying Hatake Kakashi sometimes showed up late. It was an understatement of epic proportions. Having received Naruto's academy records from his previous teachers, Iruka had expected Naruto to be a loudmouth, orange-clad, idiot with a penchant for pranks. However, over the last three weeks his assumption had been shot down and stabbed repeatedly with gleaming sharp kunai.

From the first day Naruto had proven himself more than his reputation had allowed. The first surprise was the lack of his bright orange jumpsuit, which was quickly followed by his show of familiarity with the academy taijutsu, and his mature attitude.

~ Magen: Flashback no Jutsu!~

_ Grading papers was a pain, but he needed to know how well the students knew the curriculum from the last few years, so he could design a curriculum to get them ready for the exam. As expected the top scorers were Uchiha Sasuke and Haruno Sakura, followed closely by Hyuuga Hinata, Aburame Shino and Yamanaka Ino. The bottom scorer to his surprise was Inuzuka Kiba, and just above him was Nara Shikamaru with just enough points to pass, no more. He had expected Naruto to come in last considering his previous scores; however, the Uzumaki had managed to land just above the middle of the pack. Deciding to have a practical skills test, he reserved a training ground for the next day and let it be._

_ The following morning having herded the class out to training ground 19, he held a taijutsu tournament, pairing the students off by last name and gender. The match between Aburame Shino and Inuzuka Kiba didn't come as much of a surprise, considering the Aburame was from a long range type clan, and the Inuzuka preferred short range frontal attacks. What had come as a shock was the match between Naruto and Kiba in the next bracket of the tournament. _

_ "I heard you were the dead last, loser! Why don't you give up now and save yourself the humiliation?" Kiba taunted. _

_ Naruto shrugged off the taunt, replying, "No, giving up is stupid. Whether I win or lose doesn't matter, I learn something either way,"_

_ "Oh yeah!? You just don't want to admit your inferiority dobe. I'll show you who's top dog!"_

_ Naruto just sighed, "Do what you want," _

_ "Okay, enough banter! Begin," Iruka started the match. Kiba who was irritated by Naruto's lack of response, charged forward with an over telegraphed punch leaving his ribs without guard. Ducking the swipe Naruto took advantage of the opening. Using the textbook academy style he pivoted on his left foot and kicked upwards into Kiba's ribs with his right, followed by a palm strike to the Inuzuka's now unguarded solar plexus, sending him out of the sparring ring. _

_ "Grades have no bearing on the actual skill level of an opponent. If you were on a mission and came across an enemy shinobi, would you lower your guard just because the enemy was reputed to have the worst grades in his graduating class at the ninja academy? That's a great way to get yourself killed." With that Naruto walked out of the ring, not waiting for Iruka to call a winner. _

~Kai!~

Iruka wondered what else Naruto could do, but then decided to leave it well enough alone. Calling his class back to order and beginning a lecture on battle tactics and strategies used during the Daisanji Ninkai Taisen, the scarred chuunin pushed the matter from his thoughts.

* * *

Hagane Kotetsu and Kamizuki Izumo were what were known as the "Eternal Chuunin Gate Guards" a.k.a. the-poor-bastards-who-were-never-seen-doing-anything-but-guarding-the-gate-and-never-managed-to-make-it-above-chuunin. According to the jounin and older genin teams there was a pair of the unlucky SOB's at the gates of every hidden village in the elemental nations.

Kotetsu and Izumo – possibly because of their hideously uninteresting job – were very fond of the blond village pariah, Uzumaki Naruto. They often outfitted him with pranking supplies to brighten up their guard duty, on the condition that they were not on the receiving end. The two of them were at this very moment, extremely bored. There hadn't been any village wide pranks since the end of the last academy term nearly four months ago and the pair were wondering what was going on. Spotting the distinct yellow mop of their favorite prankster, Izumo jabbed the lightly snoring Kotetsu in the side, wanting him awake to help him interrogate Naruto.

"Hey buddy!" Izumo called, catching Naruto's attention.

Rubbing the sleep out of his eyes, Kotetsu caught on, "Yo, it's been too long! I was worried about you. There haven't been any over the top pranks in months!"

Walking up to the guardhouse, Naruto rubbed the back of his head sheepishly. "Well, the last four months I've spent training-ttebayo. Now that I'm back in the academy you can expect some excitement soon. But, I learned some things from Hokage-jiji after the incident at the end of last term that caused me to step up my game."

Kotetsu and Izumo looked at each other and then back at Naruto. "Ne…is that what happened to that orange monstrosity you used to call clothing?"

"It wasn't that bad? Was it?"

Izumo sighed, "Dude, it practically glowed in the dark! If you didn't have such great stealth skills, you'd be dead in a minute when you started going on missions."

"At the time, it was the only clothing I was allowed to buy. I figure the villagers hate me enough that they thought if they painted a big enough target, I'd be the first one killed on a mission out of the village-dattebayo. But, I found a place that will sell me decent shinobi wear without tripling the prices, so I decided to ditch the jumpsuit. I like orange, but even I know it's not a good color for a ninja. I'll admit wearing the thing while trying to hide from chuunin, jounin and the few ANBU who were sent to chase me after my pranks was really good stealth training-ttebayo."

"That's for sure," Kotetsu said, "If you can hide from ANBU in Kill-Me orange, I'll be damned if you can be found in normal clothing by anyone outside of a sensor."

"I wonder how the bigoted bastards in the village will feel when they realize they inadvertently helped you?" Izumo added contemplatively.

Naruto laughed, "Thanks for that. Watch toward the town center at noon-ish tomorrow, it'll be interesting," Naruto said with a shit-eating grin. "I'll be by again soon."

After leaving Kotetsu and Izumo to guard duty Naruto made his way to training ground 43. Every morning since the beginning of the new term, Naruto had left 30 clones to do chakra control exercises and various other things. Today's breakdown was ten clones doing various chakra control exercises, five studying the Uzumaki Sealing Method from his mother's scrolls, another five designing seals to secure his apartment to prevent the periodic break in and vandalism, and the last ten were working on taijutsu kata.

Dispelling the clones in groups of 3 every five minutes Naruto sat in a meditative trance, sorting through the influx of information. It seemed the clones had managed to smooth out the stance transitions in his taijutsu. His clones had also configured an exploding note array to give double the average damage of a regular manufactured note with half the smoke residue by refining the chakra conversion factor and rearranging the explosion trigger versus the energy dispersion part of the array. Picking up his clones notes on the exploding tag array, Naruto rolled up the scroll and sealed it into one of the empty storage scrolls he kept on his utility belt.

Gathering the rest of his scrolls, ink and brushes Naruto made his way back to his apartment deciding to spend the evening working on refining the security sealing system his clones had started.

* * *

Seven months had passed and the graduation exam at the ninja academy was a week away. It was lunchtime at the academy and Naruto was sitting with Shikamaru, Chouji, Kiba, and Hinata discussing the upcoming exams.

Over the course of the term Naruto had developed a friendly rivalry with Kiba despite their initial interactions. The two often sparred and hung out just for fun after classes. Naruto's friendship with Shikamaru had started over a lunchtime game of shougi, which the blond inevitably lost, but caused the lazy Nara enough trouble to interest him in playing again. The afternoon after the shougi game Naruto and Chouji bonded over a ramen eating contest at Ichiraku, leaving Ichiraku Teuchi the happiest person in the village that evening. But how Naruto and Hinata became friends was the most interesting story.

~Magen: Flashback no Jutsu~

_It had been three months since the start of term and Naruto was heading toward training ground 43 to disperse the day's kage bunshin. As the year had progressed the blue eyed boy had gradually reduced the number of bunshin he left at the training ground. Naruto had begun to feel as if he were cheating with his use of bunshin. Of course it was a really good method of training if he wanted to get as strong as possible as fast as possible, but he decided that sometimes it was better to do things by himself. Not to say that he wouldn't sic a few kage bunshin on his homework if there was a lot of it. _

_Reaching the training ground Naruto sunk into a meditative state after telling his bunshin to dispel. After assimilating the information – which today was reading about politics and geography – he continued his meditation and began doing chakra sensing exercises. During the break Anko had taught him how to sense other people's chakra signatures, he couldn't feel past a fifteen meter radius as he wasn't a natural sensor, but he could identify specific people by their chakra signatures. _

_Stretching his senses out to the maximum, Naruto noticed a vaguely familiar chakra signature on the east side of the training ground; the chakra had a warm presence but was also unsure and hesitant. He knew the feeling was familiar but he couldn't place a name to it, so he decided to find out._

"_You can come out; I know you're there so there's no point in hiding-ttebayo." Naruto said loudly enough to reach the presence in the trees. He heard a surprised "eek!" and someone stumble into a bush, before turning to look at his observer._

"_A-a-anoo," Hyuuga Hinata was standing uncomfortably at the edge of the training ground, blushing and poking her index fingers together in nervousness._

"_Hinata-chan, you can come closer; I don't bite," Naruto said with an amused quirk of his lips. Hinata hesitantly joined him closer to the center of the clearing that made up the training space. Naruto indicated she should sit, and she did, but continued to fidget insecurely._

"_A-a-anoo, I'm s-s-sorry f-for intrud-d-ing N-n-naruto-kun," the pale eyed girl said quietly while seemingly trying to shrink into her overlarge, beige coat._

"_It's fine Hinata-chan," Naruto smiled, "I don't mind you being here, you don't have to hide though, that's kinda weird."_

_The Hyuuga blushed hotter, but stopped fidgeting. '_Blunt as always, Naruto-kun,' _she thought._ _"A-are you s-s-sure it's okay N-naruto-kun?"_

"_Un, it's fine dattebayo! Instead of just watching me train, you can train with me!"_

"_B-b-but, a-are you s-sure you want t-to t-t-train with m-me? I-I'm weak." Hinata looked down at her crossed legs, disheartened._

"_Sure I'm sure! Whoever told you you're weak is a jerk; you've got the third highest overall grades in our class, and you're first in girls taijutsu! The only way to get stronger is to train, and if you're still not strong enough, train some more! If you're always telling yourself that you're weak, you're gonna be weak. But if you believe in yourself and keep trying, you're only gonna get stronger-ttebayo! Come on, spar with me,"_

"_O-o-okay,"_

~Kai!~

From then on Naruto and Hinata would spar together in the afternoons after class, occasionally dragging Kiba, or Shikamaru and Chouji with them to practice taijutsu or have all out spars. In the weeks leading up to the graduation exam, the five of them had gotten together to practice, spar and talk more and more often.

The bell rang signaling the end of lunch and the group moved inside for the rest of the day's classes.

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**And Cut!**

**Thank you for reading chapter two! Please review to let me know what you think, reviews let me know that this fic is worth continuing.**


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